Content Schema and English Reading Comprehension

Abstract：Schema is usually the general knowledge structure in mind， and there are different kinds of schema in reader’s mind. Content schema refers to the background knowledge about the content area of a text. And the reader’s content schema in mind has greater effects on English comprehension.

Key words：schema； content schema； English reading comprehension

中图分类号：H319 文献标识码： A 文章编号：1672-1578（2013）07-0001-01

1 Schema

The term of schema was proposed by Bartlett. Bartlett （1932） first defines schema as “an active organization of pass reactions， or past experience” when discussing the nature of remembering. In other words， a schema is an abstract knowledge structure.

2 Classifications of schema

Carrell （1983） classified schema into two sub-schema： content schema and formal schema. In order to get a better understanding on the role of content schema， it is necessary to draw a distinction between content schema and formal schema.

2.1 Formal schema

Formal schema，often known as textual schema or rhetorical schema， can be defined as“background knowledge of the formal， rhetorical organizational structures of different types of texts”（Carrell and Esterhold 1983）.It refers to the organizational forms and rhetorical structures of written texts.

2.2 Content schema

Content schema refers to “background knowledge about the content area of a text， such as text about washing clothes， celebrating New Year’s Eve in Hawaii or Halloween in Carbondale， or about the economy of Mexico， the history of Canada， problems of nuclear breeder reactors， and so forth”（Carrell and Esterhold 1983）. The researches have found out that reader’s familiarity with a topic affects his understanding of the text directly and greatly. When a reader reads a text which is familiar to him， he can effectively activate the previous knowledge and background knowledge stored in his mind to support him to make predictions and inferences about the incoming information， and he tends to understand the text with ease， even when he meets with some unacquainted words and complicated long sentences.

3 The functions of content schema in reading comprehension

3.1 Assimilating text information

A schema provides ideational scaffolding for assimilating text information. In some measure， readers arrive at comprehension with their schema correspond with the writer’s. Take this sentence for instance：

The policeman held up his hand and stopped the car.

To understand this sentence，readers must have the schema of traffic， that is， the policeman held up his hand to give the driver a signal that he has to stop the car， otherwise the driver will disobey the traffic rules. That is to say， readers can not understand the text by the previous knowledge in minds.

3.2 Making up for language deficiency

When the language of reading material is difficult to understand and students cannot use the decoding skill， that is “bottom-up” reading model effectively， they will have to choose content schematic-based model （top-down model）. E.g， Hong Kong's Department of Health announced Monday that it had found the same mutation in a H1N1 flu virus sample as the one detected in Norway recently. For an effective reader with lower language proficiency， he may have difficulty in understanding the sentence， but he is capable of using content schema to predict and deduce the underlying meaning behind the words.

3.3 Making judgment， deduction and choice

English reading is a process of judgment， deduction and choice. In the course of information processing， the reader’s hypotheses would constantly be denied， affirmed or improved. The reader must be able to provide more previous background knowledge to comprehend the reading materials rather than the printed words of reading material. Now let’s look at an example： A doctor dressed in white gown with a medicine chest knocked at the door of room301， a young woman opened the door.

The doctor asked： “Is your husband at home？

The woman whispered： “No.”

Then the doctor slipped into the room.

When reading the first sentence， the readers think that the doctor paid his patient a visit. When moving to the second sentence， readers might be doubtful for the doctor’s purpose. After the reader read the last sentence， he suddenly realized that the doctor committed adultery with the woman. English reading processing can be regarded as a series of processes made up of predicting， selecting， testing and affirming. In the process， content schema helps the readers predict for every part and then chooses the most appropriate part from many schemas for interactive communication with the writer. If some of the information is proved to be incorrect， the reader will give it up and choose the information again. In a sense， reading comprehension is a process of selecting， testing， confirming or negating information.

4 Conclusion

From above discussion， the printed words of the text only provide directions for the readers only when they regain or construct meaning from their own prior knowledge. The more background information a reader is familiar with the content of a text， the better he/ she will comprehend it. The insufficient background knowledge may lead to difficulty or failure in successful comprehension. Therefore， English teacher should take some effective measures to activate students’ known content schema so that to improve reading efficiency.

References：

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[2]Carrell， P.L.&J.C. Eisterhold. Schema Theory and ESL Reading Pedagogy[A].In Interactive Approaches to Second Language Reading[C].Ed. Cambridge： University Press， 1983.

[3]赵艳芳.认知语言学概论[M].上海：上海外语教育出版社，2001.

[4]元鲁霞，王初明.背景知识与语言难度在英语阅读理解中的作用[J].外语教学与研究，1988，（2）.